Facts - The Bundestag at a glance - Deutscher Bundestag

All Members of Parliament enjoy two
privileges – immunity and indemnity.
Immunity means that criminal investigations
or a formal charge may only
be made against individual Members
of the Bundestag with the consent of
the House, except in cases where the
Member is arrested while committing
a criminal offence or on the following
day. Immunity is limited to the duration
of a person’s membership of the Bundestag
and can only be lifted by a decision
of the Bundestag. Indemnity means
that Members of the Bundestag may at
no time be subjected to court proceedings
or disciplinary action or otherwise
called to account outside the Bundestag
for a vote cast or for any speech or
debate in the Bundestag or in any of its
committees. This indemnity does not
apply to defamatory insults. These rules
are chiefly designed to guarantee the
proper working of Parliament.
Members of Parliament – envoys of the people
Between Parliament and constituency
Members of Parliament normally have
two places of work: the Bundestag
and their constituency. Regardless
of whether they were elected to the
Bundestag as constituency Members
or from a regional list, they look after
their constituents. They engage with the
public, are frequently involved in local
politics and report on their parliamentary
activities. In regular surgery sessions,
they learn of the problems and interests
of local people and feed this knowledge
into their deliberations in Berlin.
Constituency issues are not sold short
in Berlin either. Although Members
have a particularly tight schedule in the
weeks when Parliament is sitting, every
parliamentary group has regional subgroups
in which Members discuss the
political concerns of their federal state
and local area.
Compulsory attendance: on sitting
days, Members must sign the attendance
register.